


The Bestest Fort or The True Story of How The Sand Dunes Became Haunted

by Rudbeck



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 20:06:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13865061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rudbeck/pseuds/Rudbeck
Summary: Regina has fun as she tries to keep her and Henry's fort in the sand dunes hidden.





	The Bestest Fort or The True Story of How The Sand Dunes Became Haunted

A/N Just borrowing the characters.  
AU and set before the show began so there will be no Emma.  
  
  
The Bestest Fort or The True Story of How the Sand Dunes Became Haunted  
  
The shifting of shadows is the only indication that something was moving in the eerie darkness that the new moon had created. The soft click of a door opening and closing is loud in the quietness. The only other sound is a soft whoosh as a dark shadow is swallowed by the darkness behind the door.  
  
The shadow continues moving through the darkened house, avoiding every piece of furniture that could alert anyone to their presence. The shadow pauses and listens before quietly walking up a darkened staircase. At the top, the shadow continues down the hallway towards a sliver of light that escapes from underneath a closed door.  
  
The door opens just as the small figure in the bed rolls over into a halo of soft light from a carefully placed night light. The shadow, a figure in dark clothes and a hooded sweatshirt, studies the small boy before quietly closing the door.  
  
Another door opens and closes. A light flickers on revealing a spacious bathroom and the reflection of the figure dressed in all black. A gloved hand pushes back the hood of the sweatshirt revealing a black camouflage painted face, stripes of fluorescent paint in dark hair and the only other color in the mirror was the intense brown eyes of one Regina Mills.  
  
As she contemplates her reflection, her lips begin to quirk until her teeth, their whiteness a stark contrast against the black camouflage paint, appear as a full smile. She could imagine how utterly shocked everyone in town would be if they could see how the mercurial, rigid, immaculately dressed, no hair out of place Mayor was currently dressed.  
  
She chuckles quietly just thinking about the wildly inaccurate speculations that were bound to be all around town by morning. In fact, for the first time in a very long time, she was looking forward to having her morning coffee in the diner. The mere thought of what would be said had her chuckles turning into a full laugh. She clamps her hand over her mouth in an attempt to contain the feeling of merriment, but it's a lost cause.  
  
She's laughing so hard that her tears are leaving trails through the camouflage paint.  She tries desperately to stop the laughter and just when she thinks she finally has it under control, she sees her reflection and a new bout of laughter bursts forth.  
  
A voice, raspy from laughing, softly mutters, "Oh Henry, if you only knew how your simple request to build a fort would give me so much exhilaration. I wish you had been able to see the panic and fear when my fireballs were exploding all around those idiots.  
  
Regina begins the task of removing the camouflage from her face and hair. An occasional chuckle escapes as she remembers what had just taken place in the fort Henry had insisted that he needed. The memories of the many hours she and Henry had played in the dunes. The stories they had created from the both their minds and from the various objects that had washed ashore. She stops and gets lost in the memories.  
  
_She smiles at his determination to build the bestest fort, as he called it, from all of the drift wood and other objects they found on the shore. She never told him that she often came out by herself to ensure that they would find what they needed. No, that was a secret that she would never tell anyone. Though there were times when she caught him studying something on the beach, his mind trying to puzzle out why the exact or close to exact object that they needed, suddenly appeared just when they required it._  
  
_Her reasoning to herself was that she didn't want to disappoint her son and would do anything to keep him happy. And if that meant scrounging along the shore looking for drift wood and other debris and moving it closer to their fort so he could find it, then that's what she was willing to do. Of course to maintain her Mayoral appearance, she usually did her shore excursions at night. Besides who would ever believe the mercurial Mayor would walk through the dunes. Much less at night, with a flashlight._  
  
_In fact her frequent night time excursions had lead to rumors concerning the occasional glimpse of her flashlight in and around the dunes. The rumors, as rumors have a tendency to do, were embellished. Every possible scenario, no matter how outrageous, was discussed._  
  
_She barely kept the smirk off her face at the gossip in Granny’s about what was really going on in the dunes. The most accepted rumor was that there was some sort of illegal activities taking place. Her personal favorite was the light was a ghost looking for its lost treasure._  
  
_If anyone had dared to look at her, they would have seen a sparkle in her eyes. These rumors were quickly becoming an opportunity to make mischief. And she was going to take advantage of them._  
  
_The first step in her plan was to leave a faint trail of sand outside of Granny’s to make it appear as if someone had been listening to the discussions taking place inside. She had made a rather pointed comment, and that it was a violation of city ordinances, about Granny not keeping the outside dining area clear of sand._  
  
_Of course Granny argued that it wasn’t her responsibility if someone trailed sand in from the dunes. That simple statement had everyone in the diner looking at each other and whispering about who or what had been outside. So intent on their discussions, no one saw the quirk of her lips._  
  
_Her next step was to make sure a drunk Leroy, like that was going to be a problem, saw a distorted figure with a light entering the sand dunes. It had worked far better than she had planned. According to Graham, Leroy had entered the Sheriff’s office, that very night, walked into one of the cells and closed the door. He was muttering something about never drinking again. In fact he had stopped drinking until the fateful night when he and the others had entered the dunes and encountered the ‘ghost’._  
  
_As the Mayor, and it would appear odd if she wasn’t annoyed that someone was traipsing through the dunes without her permission, she ordered Graham to search the dunes. He searched repeatedly and found nothing. But then Regina knew he wouldn’t._  
  
_Unless you entered the dunes from a particular direction, the fort couldn’t be seen. She and Henry had spent hours hiding the walls of the fort under sand. It appeared as just another dune from three of its four sides. She and Henry had even made it difficult to discern the fort from the fourth side._  
  
_As for tracks, she had taken great care in hiding her movements and the breeze from the ocean guaranteed that any footprints were soon swept away. That’s why, even with all of the searching Graham did, he never found any indications of anyone having been in the dunes. But even this didn’t stop the gossip._  
  
_She was having too much fun for the lights to be taken for granted. So to keep the speculation going, she had taken care to alternate the frequency of the lights being seen. She had even left trails of sand outside the jail, Granny’s again and other places around town. Each time the sand was discovered, speculations began anew._  
  
_Then to her surprise she had overheard that some of the more daring citizens were determined to do what Graham couldn’t, catch whomever or whatever had been prowling the dunes. They were planning to hide in the area of the dunes where the majority of the lights had been seen. They weren’t going to tell Graham their plans. It’s not that they didn’t trust him, it just seemed odd that whenever the Sheriff was on a stake out, the lights never seemed to appear. Some had even wondered if Graham was behind everything or was protecting the real culprit._  
  
_Someone had muttered, “If Graham was involved in the coverup, who was he protecting? Gold or the Mayor?”_  
  
_Leroy snorted, “Gold would only be behind it if there was money involved. As for the Mayor, well we already know what she’s getting from Graham. Besides can you see the high and mighty Mayor in the dunes wearing her heels?”_  
  
_Peels of laughter about Gold or the Mayor actually walking in the sand quickly ended any thoughts of Graham being involved in a coverup._  
  
_Regina was livid. How dare they think they knew anything about her? Leaving sand in various places had begun as a prank to make the rumors continue, but now they had crossed a line. In that moment she decided that these pissants were going to pay for their insolence. They were going to feel her wrath._  
  
_Her eyes widen and sparkle at the favorite rumor concerning the lights. If they thought it was a ‘ghost’ looking for its lost treasure, then a ‘ghost’ is what they’ll get. Her eyes darken in thought, and undeniable merriment, of what she was going to do. She may not have her magic, but she did have books and they were going to come in handy._  
  
_One advantage, of many, that she had used as the Evil Queen was to control where and when a fight was to take place. In this case, she needed time to prepare and assemble everything. So to keep the daring citizens from entering the dunes before she was ready, she subtly dropped a report, that Henry had done, an A+ of course, on the phases of the moon, in the booth. What she was counting on was the curiosity of Ruby to not only read the report but to mention it to one of the imbeciles._  
  
_It didn’t take long before she just happen to overhear that the night of the new moon would be the opportune time to try and catch the ‘ghost’._  
  
_She had been quietly assembling everything she needed in her vault. Curiously, she found that making the various chemical mixtures gave her the same thrills as mixing potions. It wasn’t the same as having her magic, but it was close._  
  
_The night of the new moon meant it was going to be very dark in the dunes. But to be safe, she made sure that Graham was busy with a disturbance as far away from the dunes as possible. He was the one person she was slightly concerned with catching her red handed._  
  
_The daring group had barely entered the dunes but weren’t close to the fort. But she had planned for this possibility and knew just how to get the group to where she wanted them. She simply had to wait until their agitation over nothing happening put them further on edge. She didn’t have to wait long._  
  
_To further her plan, she had dressed in all black. This had two benefits. One she was able to blend into the darkness and two, it further enhance the idea of a ghost when she implemented her plan._  
  
_Using her knowledge of chemicals, she created a compound that when mixed created a temporary flash of light and would burn for a set amount of time. The reaction time gave her just enough of a head start to get in position for when the daring group came to investigate._  
  
_And investigate they did. They found the partially obscured fort that she had created especially for tonight and a well weathered chest mostly buried in the sand. If Marco had been with them, he would have recognized the chest as one of his. She had ‘borrowed’ it for tonights adventure._  
  
_She barely contained her laughter at the ensuing arguments over what was in the chest and who's it was. Archie had tried to talk them out of taking the chest but greed, as she knew it would, won out. As they started to carry the very, very heavy chest, that slowed their progress, through the dunes when the second part of her plan began._  
  
_She began a low moaning that was designed to catch everyone's attention. It was neither loud enough nor clear enough for her words to be understood. And the careful placement of speakers added to the illusion and helped create more confusion. The brave group were nervously shining their flashlights everywhere they seemed to think they heard a voice and yet found nothing. The new moon was making it hard for their flashlights to penetrate the darkness which was making Regina's plan work far better than even she had envisioned._  
  
_She began whispering, "Mine,” in a low moan and then changed to, "Thieves!”  She made sure to draw out each and every word to cause more chaos. She barely suppressed her laughter over the arguments of whether they should leave the chest, and come back in the morning for it, or continue taking it with them._  
  
_She knew that it was only a matter of time before the group would make a run to get out of the dunes and away from the eerie voice that seemed to be everywhere._  
  
_It was time to implement the next part of her plan. She increased the volume of her voice and said, "You dare to steal what is mine." Out of nowhere and seemingly from every direction fireballs began landing in the sand around the group._  
  
_Each time one of the fireballs landed, it exploded sending sparks everywhere. Now Regina had been careful with this mixture, it only exploded on contact with sand, as she didn't really want to hurt anyone. Okay if someone just happened to get a little singed from the sparks, that just added to her enjoyment. She knew there was also the possibility of other injuries when they panicked and ran, but a little pain never hurt anyone as long as it wasn't her who was feeling the pain. She hadn't had this much fun in ages._  
  
_Hearing the panic, she began the last part of her plan. She stood up on a dune and removed various parts of her black outerwear creating a vision of a glowing ghost with parts missing. She had used camouflage paint to make her face and hands invisible in the dark and put fluorescent paint in strands of her hair so she appeared to have no face that was surrounded by glowing hair._  
  
_She wasn’t worried about the limited range of the flashlights. Only up close would anyone know she was a person and she had no intention of letting anyone that close to her. Nor would any one of them have the nerve to come closer to the ghost._  
  
_Now if Granny, and her crossbow, had been with the group, then Regina would have been more concerned. But she wasn’t and that small fact would allow the ghost to be closer and appear far more menacing._  
  
_She stood on the dune waiting until someone spotted her and she didn't have to wait long. If they could have seen her face they would have seen nothing but enjoyment at the spectacle that she was creating. She began talking, her voice amplified by the various speakers, "Your punishment…” The terrified group is shaking both from her maniacally laughter and the sudden appearance of fireballs, where her hands should have been, “is at hand.”_  
  
_She begins tossing fireballs at the group while laughing maniacally. She may be creating these fireballs by using chemicals but to her it felt like she was using magic again and the joy that was radiating through her body was indescribable._  
  
_The terrified group stares, as Regina continues to rain fireballs around them until one lands close enough that some of the sparks land on clothes. The frantic slapping at flames breaks their frozen stances and the group begins to run for their lives leaving the chest behind. Fireballs continue to follow them as does the voice warning them, "Never return or you will join me for eternity." More maniacally laughter fills the night and chases the terrified group of men, as they run for their lives, through the sand dunes._  
  
The next morning, Regina has her Mayoral mask fully in place as she enters the diner. She glances around and finds that there are quite a number of black eyes and bruises on various people. A muttered, “Idiots,” has her turning to find Granny glaring at almost everyone in the diner. “I agree, but what did they do this time?”  
  
Granny shakes her head at her customers stupidity. “They got it into their heads to try and capture the ghost all by themselves.”  
  
Regina’s eyebrow threatens to disappear into her hair as she looks around, “The ghost did that?”  
  
Granny snorts. “No, they did it to themselves trying to escape the ghosts wrath.” She leans closer to Regina. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t with them.”  
  
“Oh?”  
  
Rather than saying anything, Granny turns slightly behind the counter and pulls out her crossbow but only far enough for Regina to see. “Ghost or not, I don’t miss.”  
  
Regina studies Granny and nods her head, “I’m sure the ghost is happy you weren’t there.”  
  
Granny nods and puts her crossbow back under the counter. “Though I would have loved to have seen all of those brave souls screaming and running from whatever was in the dunes.”  
  
“So you don’t believe it was a ghost they encountered?”  
  
“Never said that.”  
  
Rather than ask Granny what she thinks was in the dunes and perhaps revealing her knowledge of what had happened the night before, she steers the conversation towards the actions of the citizens of her town. “Have they said what happened?”  
  
“Fireballs, eerie moans, and a vague outline of a figure with flaming hair.” She leans closer to Regina. “Personally I think someone was playing a trick on them.”  
  
Only years of controlling and hiding her emotions kept Regina from outwardly responding. “Why would you think that?”  
  
“Those strange lights have been around a lot longer than,” she nods her head towards the rather subdued and battered dune raiders, “they realize. Besides there’s nothing except for sand,” she meets Regina’s eyes, “and driftwood that the wind has blown deep into the dunes.”  
  
“Anything else?”  
  
Granny leans closer and softly murmurs, “Other than I’ll miss the talk about the lights and what’s causing them, no.” She smiles and starts to walk away before glancing back at Regina, “Though I won’t miss finding sand on the front step of the B &B.” She enters the kitchen leaving a thoughtful Regina at the counter.  
  
Regina’s eyes narrow. She hadn’t left any sand trail at the B&B. And her comment about ‘someone trailing sand in from the dunes’ had helped to perpetrate the idea of someone or something was in the dunes. Her eyes widen, Granny either knew or suspected that she was responsible for the lights in the dunes. Yet surprisingly it seemed that Granny was was going to keep her secret.  
  
It took everything Granny had to not fall over laughing. She knew about the fort and Regina’s nocturnal visits to the dunes. In fact she had been laying flat on a nearby dune and had seen everything. Watching Regina throw the fireballs and hearing the panic in everyones voices had her wanting to howl with laughter. To bad she couldn’t share with anyone what she had seen. Still she could use the information to tease Leroy and his friends.  
  
Henry was right, it was the bestest fort.  
  
  
The end.  
  
  
  
  



End file.
